Afterlife
by OMG-fangirl
Summary: Sequel to 'Life'. Eponine struggles to deal with Enjolras's death and taking care of her son. Maybe part 2 in one-shot series?.


A/N: This was requested by PJOKCHG. Oh and I have some news but I'll tell you later.

* * *

Eponine groaned at the sound of her baby crying. It had been 6 months since Enjolras died and Eponine was still coping. Eponine threw back the covers, stood up, and walked over to the crib that held her 1 month old son. She picked him up and held him close to her chest before walking back to her bed. She climbed in and sat up against her headboard with Enjolras's -their- child still held close to her.

"Sssshhh, Ethan. It's alright, mommy's here." She said trying to comfort her kid. Eventually the crying turned to whimpers and soon the whimpers silenced. Even once the whimpers had silenced for a good 5 minutes, Eponine made no move to get up and put her son back in his crib. She looked down at her son who began to show the same blond bouncy curls that she remembered Enjolras having. She turned to look at a picture frame on her night stand. It was a collage of memories of her and Enjolras. The top right one was a picture of them at their graduation from college. The top left one was a picture of when he proposed to her, courtesy of the Amis. The bottom right one was where she was on his back while he laughing and smiling towards the camera. The bottom left one was their wedding day and the one right above it was the first sonogram of Ethan. The middle one was a picture of when Ethan was born but that wasn't what Eponine intended it to be. She wanted it to be a picture of her, Enjolras, and their newborn son, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Tears pooled in her eyes and she quickly turned her head. She silently cried herself to sleep and that's how Grantaire found them the next morning with Eponine up against her headboard and her son cradled in her chest. 6 months ago Grantaire would have found this the most cutest thing in the world but since the all mighty Apollo died, this was nothing but mere sadness to him. He walked over and took Ethan from her arms and carefully placed him in his crib. Once Ethan was in his crib, Grantaire walked back over to Eponine and quietly slid her back under her covers. He then walked out of the room and quietly shut the door and walked into the kitchen to start making breakfast.

Eponine awoke to the smell of pancakes and bacon filling the house. She quietly got up and threw her robe on before walking out of her room and into the kitchen. There she found Grantaire flipping the last pancake. She took a seat the the bar before he handed her a plate of food and a cup of coffee

"Morning." He said as he handed her a plate of food.

"Morning." She replied. In the last 6 months and especially in the last 2 months, Grantaire's done something that the Les Amis would have never expected. He stopped drinking, mostly. He had a drink occasionally but other than that, he didn't drink at all. Needless to say, everyone, even Eponine, was surprised by this. When asked he would say that he thought that something needed to change with him when in reality, Enjolras had something to do with it.

7 months ago

Enjolras walked into the Musain only to find a almost sober Grantaire. He sighed before walking over to him. He knew that if he wanted to ask him, it was now or never.

"Hey R." Enjolras said taking a chair and sitting down.

"Well hello the mighty Apollo." Grantaire replied jokingly. All of a sudden, Enjolras face became real serious. Grantaire thought that he was going to get a lecture on him and his drinking problem. What he asked was not what he expected.

"Can I ask you something?" Enjolras ask with a serious look on his face.

"Sure."

"Well, it's more of a favor or even a promise I guess." Enjolras said rubbing the back of his neck

"Wait, if it's a favor or promise, why are you asking me?" Grantaire question. Normally if Enjolras need to ask someone a favor or promise, it would be Combeferre or one of the other Amis. He would be that last person that would come to thought when someone said 'favor' or 'promise'.

Enjolras sighed,"It's about and for Eponine." Grantaire knew that this favor-slash-promise was serious. Enjolras was always serious when it came to Eponine.

"What do you need?" Grantaire asked putting his drink aside. Something he never did.

"You know how I'm suppose to be deployed in month?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, the area that I'm going to be deployed to is very dangerous. Things are starting to get heated with the locals and the citizens. Long story short, they're attacking each other." Grantaire just nodded.

"The citizens have somehow gotten bombs and are now bombing the local areas. I've asked to be behind the scenes and stuff and explained the situation with Eponine and the fact that she's pregnant. They said that they might be able to do something about it but since I signed up as a fighter person they don't know what they'll be able to do." Grantaire just nodded again not really sure where this was going.

"What I need you to do is to make sure Eponine doesn't do anything stupid." Enjolras said. Grantaire scoffed

"She's a big girl Enjolras, she's had to deal with her father. I'm pretty sure she can handle herself for a few weeks without you."

"That's not what I meant." Enjolras sighed,"What I mean is if I don't come back." Grantaires eyes became real wide when he said that.

"You don't, you mean? You thinking on those terms?" Grantaire asked

"Yes I am R. I have to think about not only myself but my family, Eponine and our child." Enjolras said dead serious. Grantaire just stared at him.

"So what do you say? Will you?" Enjolras asked hopeful that he would say yes.

"Yes." Grantaire said in a heartbeat.

"Great, thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me to me." Enjolras said.

"Sure no problem." Grantaire said with a smile. Just then Eponine walked in and spotted the boys and walked over to them.

"Hey, whatcha talkin' about?" She asked as she approached the table where Enjolras and Grantaire were sitting with her arm covering her slightly growing abdomen.

"We were, uh." Enjolras started but couldn't come up with anything. If anything, he was a terrible liar. Eponine raised an eyebrow at him.

"He was giving me another lecture on my 'obsessive drinking'." Grantaire said. Eponine looked between Enjolras and Grantaire to see if she could catch a bluff. But alas, she couldn't find one. She shrugged her shoulders.

"Ok then." She turned to Enjolras,"Ready to go?" She asked.

"Yup." He replied. He grabbed her hand, intertwined their fingers, and began to walked towards the door. When they were about to walk out, Enjolras turned over his shoulder and mouthed a 'thank you' toward Grantaire. He nodded, tipping his drink towards them.

Present Day

"You know," Grantaire started,"The rest of the Les Amis are meeting at the Musain later on today." Grantaire stated simply.

"And your point is?" Eponine asked while semi-glaring at him while drinking her coffee

"Well, I just thought that you should go." Grantaire looked at her with pleading eyes. She immediately shook her head.

"No." Was simply all she said.

"Please Ep." Grantaire pleaded."You need get out of this damn place and out and see people other than Ethan, 'Chetta, Cosette, or me. And I know what you're going to tell me.'No, I don't want to go out.'" Grantaire said while doing his best Eponine impression which in turn, earned him a glare from her. "But seriously," His face got real serious,"if you don't want to go out that's fine. But think about Ethan. He needs to get out." Grantaire knew exactly how to persuade Eponine.

Eponine sighed. She knew Grantaire was right. Ethan needed to get out of the house and she also needed to see the rest of the Les Amis. Eponine looked up at Grantaire and gave an exasperated sigh.

"Fine, we'll go." She said in defeat. Grantaire smiled before walking over to her and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Great! We're meeting at 4." Grantaire said smiling from ear to ear. The Amis weren't going to believe him.

"Ok, see you then." Eponine said. Just then a shrilling cry came from the bedroom.

"Well, I better get going." Grantaire said grabbing Eponine's plate and putting in the sink before going to get his stuff.

"Yeah you better. And I better get attending to someone." Eponine said referring to the now screaming baby. Eponine walked Grantaire to the door.

"See you at 4." He said before leaving

"See you." She called before shutting the door. Once the door was shut she walked into her bedroom and picked up the screaming child.

Soon after Grantaire left, Eponine tended to Ethan. She fed him, got him dressed, and put him down for a nap. While he was sleeping Eponine decided to get a shower and get some things packed before waking Ethan up (something she dreaded because he was _not_ a happy baby when someone woke him up). While she was packing she heard a knock at the door. She got a really bad feeling about this so she decided not to answer. The person kept knocking for about a minute before finally leaving. Eponine had a really bad feeling and waited 5 minutes before checking to see if anyone was at the door. Luckily, no one was so Eponine considered it to be safe to bring her son out. She shut the door and went to go wake Ethan up. Eponine wasn't looking forward to waking him up but to her surprise, when she entered her room, she found that Ethan had already woken up so that was a plus on her side. She quickly changed him before locking up and leaving. She decided that a walk would do her some good. She had to carry Ethan though because she still hadn't bought a stroller but he wasn't that heavy so it was alright. Eponine hadn't realized how much she missed being outside until then. She laughed quietly to herself as she continued to walk.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Came a snarling voice that Eponine would recognize any day. She stopped in her track and slowly turned around to face Montparnasse.

"What do you want." Her voice was laced with venom and she was now standing directly in front of him. Montparnasse eyes flickered to Ethan.

"Who do we have here? Hmm? Who's the lucky guy?" Montparnasse said looking intently at Ethan. Eponine instinctively pulled him closer to her.

"Leave. Him. Alone." Eponine said with as much venom laced into her voice as possible as she cradled Ethan to her chest. Signaling the tension in the air, Ethan began to whimper but Eponine didn't notice due to the fact that she was _set_ on keeping him away from Montparnasse. Montparnasse took a step forward and without realizing it, Eponine had shifted Ethan so that his back was against her chest and was facing Montparnasse. Ethan was full on crying now.

"Why don't 'cha shut the dumb thing up?" Montparnasse said knowing how to get under her skin.

"Why don't you get the hell outta my face and get the hell away from me and my kid!" Eponine snarled at him.

"You little-" Montparnasse began but was interrupted by Ethan throwing up on him.

"UGH! You little-you're gonna pay for this!" Montparnasse said before stomping off. Eponine laughed as Montparnasse was stomping off which in turn made Ethan laugh.

"Good boy." Eponine said as she held Ethan close to her face and rubbed their noses together which made Ethan laugh again.

"Come one," Eponine said settling Ethan back down into her arms,"Let's go to the cafe." Eponine couldn't help but smile.

* * *

"Grantaire, calm down." Jehan said looking at the pacing Grantaire in front of him,"She's fine, she can handle herself." Jehan said reasureling.

"It's not Eponine I'm worried about, I know she can handle herself, it's Ethan." Grantaire said increasing his pace a little.

"Seriously!?" Courfeyrac shoutted. Everyone turned to look at him.

"You're seriously still believing that she's coming?" He asked

"Yeah? Why wouldn't she be?" Grantaire looked at him with a confused face.

"Grantaire," Combeferre said coming up besides him and putting a hand on his shoulder,"You know better than anyone that she's still coping, but she's still managed to trick you into thinking that she's coming because she doesn't want to make you feel bad"

Grantaire was about to protest when the door opened and revealed Eponine slightly bouncing Ethan. Everyone's jaw dropped then immediately looked at a smirking Grantaire who shot them all a look.

"Hey." Eponine said finally looking up from Ethan. Cosette and Musichetta instantly rushed to her and give her a hug.

"You came!" Courfeyrac exclaimed.

"Yeah?" Eponine said giving him a confused look while passing Ethan off to Musichetta,"Why wouldn't I?" Eponine said now standing directly in front of him.

"Well,...it-it-it's just that,...um." Courfeyrac said trying to think of what to say. Suddenly he was pulled into a hug by Eponine

"I missed you too Courf." Eponine said letting a smile spread across her face. They spent the rest of the night catching up and just talking about random things in general as they always have. As Eponine said on the couch in the back of the Musain with her feet up on Grantaire's lap and holding a sleeping Ethan on her chest, Eponine knew that she was going to be on a long road to recovery, but was happy that she had her friends there to help her. And Ethan.

* * *

A/N: So this might be the last thing I post until September because school is ending soon and finals are next week so IDK. Hope you enjoyed :P


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